


An Open Mind

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: But it is Sam friendly, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Mentions of Carol Danvers, Moderated because of trolls, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sam listens and thinks, Tony gets some things off his chest, mentions of James Rhodes, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 17:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17882231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: When Tony gets captured with Sam Wilson, he's prepared for the worst. It ends up not going how he expected... in a good way.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square R3: Sam Wilson/Falcon





	An Open Mind

_Well, this is awkward._

That was the thought that kept running through Tony’s mind as he catalogued everything that was in the room. This was the first mission that Tony had participated in with the Rogues. Not that the New Avengers hadn’t run missions with them before but Tony hadn’t been a part of them. A little bit of his own doing and a little bit of Carol and Rhodey’s doing since neither of the New Avengers’ team leaders thought it appropriate that Tony should have to work with people who had abused him unless it was a genuine end of the world matter. It wasn’t as if there weren’t other New Avengers with a similar skill set to him, even if it was apparently quite a treat (in the sarcastic way) to combine Harley in the Rescue armour with the Rogues.

But today’s mission had needed him and his unique combination of skills and knowledge and ability to apply them in creative ways under extreme pressure. Carol and Rhodey hadn’t been pleased but Tony had been willing so the best they could do was limit Tony’s contact with some of the more contentious of the Rogues.

Which was kind of how Tony now found himself being held prisoner with Sam Wilson.

Tony had never really gotten Sam. Admittedly, he barely knew the man but he didn’t understand him or his thought processes at all. How he could blindly follow Steve without question when his military record showed that he’d been an excellent airman with a proven track record of knowing how to question orders without sounding insubordinate and a documented ability to come up with alternate plans on the fly. How he could think that he was above the law and the wishes of the people when said military record also showed he was an exemplary airman who had been a willing and active participant in all of the ‘after action’ reviews that he’d been a part of.

It never made sense to Tony, who had always welcomed his friends and underlings questioning him. Okay, sometimes Pepper and Rhodey’s lack of faith had hurt at times but he never wanted them to stop questioning him. How was he supposed to get better if people didn’t question him? Hell, that was how he’d met Pepper in the first place! 

But Sam… Sam had turned himself into a Cap fanboy/groupie/unthinking yes man and Tony didn’t understand how he could do that. But that didn’t really matter. What had mattered for the mission was that Tony didn’t object to working with him and apparently Sam didn’t object either, which he would admit he’d found odd since he knew Sam had been a willing and active participant in the ‘slag off Stark’ sessions in Wakanda. Something had changed though, since the Rogues return to the US. Tony didn’t know what it was and frankly didn’t care as long as it made it easy to work with Sam. After all, no one had ever said you had to like your work colleagues. You just had to be willing to work with them.

“Can we get out?”

Tony turned to look at Sam and sighed. “Not that I can see right now. They seem to have taken… well, _me_ into account. Which I’m finding mildly disturbing and a little annoying.”

Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, they’re either excessively careful with all their prisoners or they knew I’d be on this mission and planned for it,” Tony replied as he did another circuit of the room. “Which means that this mission was a trap.”

“For you.” Sam’s tone was neutral and Tony didn’t know what that meant.

“Yeah, most likely.” Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. “You’d think they’d have learned that it’s always a bad idea to kidnap me. I’m not a good hostage.”

“You mean… like the Ten Rings,” Sam said, still in that neutral tone.

Tony waved a hand. “Well, yeah, that. But I’ve been escaping from kidnappers since I was six so… there’s that too.”

Sam frowned. “You were kidnapped when you were _six_?”

“The first one was when I was four actually,” Tony replied as he gave up and slid down the wall opposite Sam to sit down. “Aunt Peggy rescued me that time.”

“Peggy Carter?” Sam said, his frown deepening momentarily. “You knew her?”

“She was my godmother,” Tony replied absently. “She taught me self-defence after that kidnapping, much to Dad’s horror and Mom’s amusement.” 

He picked at the tattered edge of his flight suit and tapped the arc reactor in his chest. He’d been pretty sure this attack had been a trap for him from the moment he’d been hit with the weapon that had ripped him away from his suit, leaving the bulk of the nanites behind. There were still more stored in the arc reactor but he was a bit wary about using them for anything right now without knowing what the situation was. Why give away his hand now when doing so might make things worse?

He realised Sam hadn’t said anything and looked over to find the man staring at him with an indecipherable look on his face. Tony frowned. “What?”

“Why didn’t you come to the funeral?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Because I was busy trying to sort out the mess you lot had made in Lagos and the Nigerian officials didn’t give a damn about the death of some random white woman they didn’t know from Adam. And believe me, it took all of my not inconsiderable skills at schmoozing to smooth over the fact that _Steve_ , the _leader_ of the Avengers who should have been there instead of me, thought some random dead white woman was more important than the eleven black people who had died in Lagos.”

Sam looked like he wanted to object but then what had been said seemed to sink in. “Wait… they thought Steve was being racist?”

Tony shrugged. “Yep. Are you surprised? Steve came right out of early 20th century America. Of course they’re going to assume he has some form of institutional racism, especially in the wake of his behaviour.” He raised an eyebrow at Sam. “Remember, you lot never bothered to actually _talk_ to people so all they had to go on were your actions. And trashing a city in Nigeria, when you had no official authorisation to be there, and then running off without a word of explanation or even an apology is not a good look, especially when three of the four perpetrators are white and one of them used to work for a Nazi terrorist organisation.”

To his surprise, Sam looked away, his expression troubled and even a little ashamed. Tony frowned and decided to he’d do what he usually did – take the bull by the horns.

“Alright, this is weird,” he said, waving his hand at Sam. “One minute you’re all ‘Stark is the devil’ and now you’re… like this. What gives?”

Sam’s head shot up and he stared at Tony for a long time. Then he blinked and frowned. “You didn’t send them?”

“Send what?” Tony said. “I haven’t send any of your lot anything.”

“The videos,” Sam replied. “I received two videos in my email from an anonymous source.”

Tony’s frown deepened for a moment then he realised what the videos must have been and he paled. “Right,” he said, his voice slightly strangled.

“You didn’t send them,” Sam repeated. He swallowed. “Who did?”

“Fucked if I know,” Tony snapped. “But I knew Zemo looked too fucking smug during his trial.”

“Why didn’t you release them?” Sam asked. “You would have won it all if you did that.”

Tony lurched to his feet and started pacing, his short sharp steps taking him back and forth across the room in no time. “Because it wasn’t about _winning_ ,” he almost spat. “It was never about sides or winning or any other bullshit you lot sold yourselves in order to make you feel better about breaking the law. It’s about what’s out _there_.” He stabbed one finger up towards the sky. “You were a soldier. When has _one battle_ ever won a war?”

“You were serious about that?” Sam said slowly.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Tony threw his hands in the air and glared at Sam. “I saw a fucking _armada_ when I went through the portal. Sure, I managed to hit the mother ship or control ship or whatever it was with the nuke but I have _no_ idea what effect that had on the rest of the fleet, if it had any at all. I don’t know if that was all there was of the Chitauri. For all we know, that was just a tiny part of the fleet acting as a vanguard for the rest that was to come.” He pointed a finger at Sam. “And how many armies, when baulked at their first attempt at an invasion, just shrug their shoulders and go ‘Welp, guess that was a bad idea. Let’s go home.’?”

Sam’s eyes were wide. “They’re still coming.”

“Them or someone else,” Tony replied. “We proved Earth is a force to be reckoned with. We _got their attention_. That’s never good.” He shook his head. “It was never about _winning_ , Sam. It was about keeping the Avengers together for when the enemy comes, not tearing them apart without a care. It was about doing what was right for the greater good, not for one person.” He snorted. “Steve accused _me_ of tearing the Avengers apart but _he_ did that when he put Bucky Barnes above the well-being and safety of every person on this planet. And you went along with him. You helped him do it.”

“I thought it was about the Accords,” Sam protested.

Tony snorted again. “Right. The Accords. Which you hadn’t read because apparently all of you were living with your damn heads in the sand and knew nothing about a public document that had been discussed in the media for _at least_ the last twelve months before everything went to shit. And yet…” His sarcasm became more obvious. “And yet, you were somehow enough of an expert on them to decree they were bad news. Despite not reading them. Because you’re apparently psychic or something.”

Sam looked like he wanted to argue but then he slumped back against the wall and scrubbed his face with both hands. “We really fucked up, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, you did,” Tony said bluntly. There was a time when he would have softened the blow, even taken the blame himself, but after everything that had happened and some long, frank discussions with Carol – an objective third party – he had taken a new view of things he had done… and hadn’t done. Like let people take responsibility for their own actions and face the consequences. With his help of course but not with him just… making things disappear. As Carol had pointed out, how were they supposed to learn if Tony swept things under the carpet. And no one should be immune from learning new things.

Sam swallowed and nodded to himself. “Right. Okay.” He stared at the floor for a moment then raised his head, a determined expression on his face. “So… what’s our plan? I’m presuming you’re not planning on sticking around with these jackasses?”

Tony raised an eyebrow when he realised that Sam seemed willing to follow his lead without argument and complaint. It was a nice change, even if his more cynical side wondered how long it would last. Still, as long as it lasted long enough for them to get out, he’d accept it.

“Well, they got rid of the nanites making up my suit but I still have a few tricks up my proverbial sleeve,” Tony said as he came over and slid down to sit next to Sam. He lowered his voice in case there was a microphone in the room and began to lay out his ideas, with Sam as an intent and interested audience.


End file.
